APOLOGY SOUGHT IN MENORAH REMOVAL.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - City and union officials demanded on Thursday that the police chief apologize for ordering a municipal employee to remove a menorah from her desk after a resident complained.

On Monday - at the height of the eight-day Jewish celebration of Hanukkah - Police Chief Anthony Alba ordered the longtime clerk to remove the cardboard menorah from public view after a resident complained that it violated constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state.

Alba said Thursday that he acted to protect the city from a potential lawsuit in a time of heightened sensitivity to religious symbols in public places.

``I respect everyone's right to religion. I never intended for anything negative to occur. I did what I thought was the prudent thing to do,'' Alba said.

The chief also said he'd told the unidentified employee she could keep the menorah at her desk, but that it needed to be out of public view.

``It's a public building; once somebody voices opinion, I have to be mindful that it's in public view,'' he said.

But Mayor Maribel De La Torre asked Alba to apologize formally and said she will propose that the city create a formal policy governing religious displays on public property.

``His comments weren't appropriate and he shouldn't have made that decision without asking legal questions,'' she said. ``It's a form of discrimination.''

City and union officials noted that San Fernando allows the Knights of Columbus to erect a Nativity scene along a median on Brand Boulevard and that a Christmas tree is displayed in the police station. They also said the clerk bought decorations for the tree and also organizes the city's annual Christmas lunch.

``To single out the menorah is discrimination at its definition,'' said Julie Butcher, general manager for Service Employees International Union, Local 347, which represents city employees.

City administrator Jose Pulido said he is drafting a policy that would define which religious displays are allowable and has asked the city attorney to determine how to respond to complaints.

City Attorney Mike Estrada did not return calls.

But Jeremy Leaming, spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said the city can allow for religious displays so long as there is no favoritism or not only one religion's symbols are displayed.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com